Blog posting errors are rarely discussed in blogging circles. They are a bit of a dirty little secret, you might say.

You know the errors that creep into your blog posts. We all make them at one time or another. Minor blog posting mistakes may be spelling errors; incorrect or misleading photographs; wrong names of people or blogs; links that are missing, don’t work, or go to the wrong blog; or simply neglected pings.

More important blog post problems involve knowingly posting incorrect information; predictions or opinions that turned out differently than claimed or expected; failure to cite and link references to blogs or static websites; or claiming someone else’s ideas as your own in the form of plagiarism. These, of course, are only a few examples of the errors that can creep into your blog postings.

The question then arises as to what to do about the mistake. The all too obvious answer is to return to the problematic post and change history. Sometimes correcting a blog error is acceptable, and even the proper thing to do. For example, any non-working or misdirected links can and should be repaired as a service to the linked blog. If an intended link was overlooked, and missed in the posting, it’s good to return to the post and create the missed link. The cited blogger’s traffic and SEO linking benefits shouldn’t be reduced because someone messed up a link to their blog.

Spelling errors are the source of some controversy among bloggers. While some bloggers believe that spelling errors and typos should be left intact, I see no problem with going back and fixing those proofreading problems. This is especially important if the typo is a misspelling of someone’s name. There is one provision on this recommendation, however. Only the typo can be corrected. No other changes can be made to the post that might change its meaning or intention.

For more serious errors, including incorrect information, the original post must not be altered to change history. Instead, the blogger has a two choices. One option is to make the correction, apology, or retraction in the blog comments section for that post. A second option is to write another post that retracts, corrects, or apologizes for the previous error. The new post should, however, quote the problem area of the previous post, and also link back to the previous post. The link back to the old post is essential.

Posting without crediting sources, or claiming their work as your own, is not acceptable blogging practice. While some would argue that “other bloggers do it”, that is no excuse. Maintaining good blogging technique helps everyone in the blogging community. If bloggers want their writing to receive respect, then proper”>http://www.penmachine.com/techie/corp_weblog_manifesto.html”>proper credit must be given to others. Linking to, and properly citing your sources, is simply good blogging practice. It should be practiced by everyone.

In most cases of blog posting errors, common sense will dictate the proper course of action. If fixing a post or link helps another blogger, then it’s an acceptable blogging practice.

The best idea, of course, is to always proofread your posts before clicking the Publish button.

Not making the error in the first place means it doesn’t have to be corrected.

 

Scott McNealy has a terrific piece in today’s Wall St Journal, Software Hardware that should have all of us thinking, then joining the demand to keep our documents open.

No one would argue that content you create belongs to anyone but you. But, in fact, it doesn’t.

That’s the dirty little secret behind much of the software people use today. In business, in government, in schools and in homes all around the world, we entrust our work to software applications: word processors, spreadsheets, presentation programs and all the rest. And, too often, that’s where we lose control of our own words and thoughts — simply on account of the way we save our documents. Because we tend to store information in formats that are owned and managed by a single dominant company, in a few short years we may no longer be able to access our files if the format is “upgraded.” Or we may be required to buy a new expensive version of the software just to access our own thoughts.

—-

 

There is now an open, international standard for common personal productivity applications — spreadsheet, presentation and word-processing programs — called the OpenDocument Format (ODF). Approved by an independent standards body, ODF has the backing of a broad community of supporters including consumer groups, academic institutions, a collection of library associations including the American Library Association, and many leading high-tech companies, but no single company owns it or controls it. (A “standard” created and controlled by a single company is not a true standard.) Any company can incorporate the OpenDocument Format into its products, free of charge, and tear down the barriers to exit.Imagine being able to open any email attachment, read it and make changes, even if you don’t have the exact program it was created in. That’s the kind of interoperability the OpenDocument Format is designed to foster.

If this standard is to become a reality, we must insist on it. In the U.S., Massachusetts has been leading the way with a mandate that all software purchased by the commonwealth comply with ODF. Globally, 13 nations are considering adopting it. The reason is simple. The data belongs to the people, not to the software vendor that created the file format.

If you don’t think this is an issue, take a look at what happened after Hurricane Katrina. People needing emergency services information found that some government Web sites could only be accessed from a single brand of Web browser. Important, publicly-funded information — in some cases life-saving information — was unavailable unless you used that specific brand. That’s like being told you can’t use the highway because you aren’t driving a Ford truck. It seems to me that this is one of those times when a government mandate makes sense — so that we can all use the road and choose what car we want to drive.

Here are the applications that support the OpenDocument Format (ODF).  You won’t see any Apple or Microsoft programs there.   Time for all of us to demand accessibility to our own content.
Think ahead five years, ten years.  Don’t you want to be able to read what you wrote today?

No doubt I wasn’t the only Australian blogger to hope that the ‘To Blog or Not to Blog’ segment on the Nine Network’s Business Sunday TV program, February 26, would have something worthwhile to show and say about the state of the Australian business blogosphere. Nothing too profound, mind you. Screened at the decidedly non-peak hour of 8.30am every Sunday in the ratings period, the program is not usually very mentally taxing. In the event, it was quite interesting for me, although I can’t help wondering what corporate executives would have made of it, in terms of the usefulness and desirability of their companies establishing a blog.

There is a link here to the transcript of the program. That is regrettably not a blog permalink, so it will presumably only stay on the web for a limited time. A handy resource for anyone reading the transcript is the post with links to the sites of the people interviewed: this was put up by one of the main interviewees, dedicated Microsoft Aussie Blogger Frank Arrigo, and is a blog permalink.

As the transcript shows, Frank and others, including Trevor Cook, had some very useful comments to make. But what I found a real downer was that the last two people interviewed, before a final comment from Frank, were Australian lawyers from global partnerships, emphasizing the downside risks of corporate blogging and explaining why their firms weren’t blogging. No serious discussion of risk management, just a ‘flick to the too-hard basket’ approach.

Knowing from experience how what is actually said in interviews from such programs can become scarcely recognizable when the program is aired, it may well be that the lawyers – both very knowledgeable in the IT space – actually contributed a more nuanced commentary. Snip! Sorry (not really) about that!

Actually, the final comment from Frank was pretty neat, pointing out that corporates actually can’t afford not to be in the blogging space. But my own feeling is that half-awake corporate execs chomping on their breakfast toast at 8.55am or so would have been inclined to be more influenced by the do-nothing-new, cautious words we heard from the attorneys.

Of course, one Sunday morning television program cannot tell the whole story. I’m tremendously keen for business blogging to kick off in Australia and I’m optimistic about that happening soon. I’ve been encouraged in this by indications such as the invitations I have to present at various events this month and next and then later in the year.

It’s quite possible however that not a lot has changed since Trevor Cook’s excellent State of Australian Blogging  post five months ago:

Overall, blogging in Australia lags behind the US and probably behind some Asian and European countries. Why? One reason is that we usually do. Australia’s population is made up of a few thousand people who have a genuine global view and who are very much at the cutting edge but the bulk of the population are followers of international trends (we’ll try something when it becomes the rage overseas).

Trevor concluded that post with an expression of optimism about how things would be this year. So I find it sobering that a conference on blogs, wikis and rss, at which both Trevor and I are scheduled to speak, has now been re-timetabled from the end of this month to a date six months hence.

Are we there yet? I don’t think so.

Call this post “an observation” about comments & trackbacks. – Guy Kawaski recently posted about The Art of Creating A Community. A lot of people must have thought it was interesting. There were 36 comments and trackbacks.

Not a surprise, in true social networking / blog style, the post also received buzz that wasn’t in comments or trackbacks. One of the bloggers who picked up on the topic was “A*List” blogger Robert Scoble. Robert added his take on the topic and posted on his blog. A lot of people must have thought it was interesting. There were 31 comments and trackbacks.

Comments on the Bona Tempura Volvant blog and the Scobleizer blog took slightly different directions. Feedback on Guy’s blog focused exclusively on the topic. However, many of the Scobleizer comments took point with Robert as an “A*List” blogger – moving the conversation off topic. Guess that’s one of the perils of being an “A*List” blogger.

If you haven’t checked in lately with GM’s top blogger Bob Lutz (he’s GM’s global vice president for product development), head on over to FastLane right now. His most recent entry – Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before – is a cogent rant on GM’s “image” problem. He comes about as close as he can to acknowledging the elephant in the room (GM’s financial woes). He writes:

This issue, this question of how do we increase awareness, improve our image, and enhance public opinion of our cars and trucks, is weighing on everyone’s mind in this company, from the plant floors to the boardroom. We are all weary of hearing that “GM doesn’t have any vehicles that people want� or that GM “doesn’t excite anyone� or doesn’t have any products that are “relevant.�

And then further on, after citing a bunch of recent awards for GM cars (the Solstice, the Corvette, the Hummer):

And yet, the coverage of our financial state [I bolded this] continues to point out our alleged lack of cars and trucks that people want. All the while more than a quarter of the vehicles sold in America are ours.

And finally:

We need to step up our non-traditional communications and word of mouth, and get our message directly to the people on a grass roots level. This blog is one example — but we need more avenues, and bigger ideas. What do you think?

I don’t know about you but that sounds pretty transparent to me for a Fortune 500 blog. Translation: we’ve got a problem. Can you help? So far, 178 readers have left comments on this entry. Fascinating to read: lots of specifics, on warranties, 1-day take-home test drives, tips on how to deal with MSM’s approach to the GM death spiral story, etc.

I’m quoted in today’s San Jose Mercury News in an article about the new Google China blog: “Google launches China blog a day before China hearing.” The reporter, Elise Ackerman, has just been assigned full-time to “Google” as a beat which she was really excited about. She phoned me late yesterday for an interview. Could hear her madly typing as we spoke, as she was on deadline. The story got a “weird edit” at the last minute, Elise said in an email this morning.

As in a, um, run-on sentence:

“Debbie Weil, author of the forthcoming “The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right,” said the idea [of the blog] was sound, but did not bring up the questions Google faced about its dealings with China overshadowed what would otherwise be a chirpy corporate branding effort.

[Update: the run-on has been fixed.]

The point of the article is the rather odd timing of the launch of Google’s chirpy China blog one day before the contentious hearings in the House this week.

BTW, I agreed with Joe Nocera’s provocative column in yesterday’s New York Times about the hearings: Enough Shame to Go Around on China. His point…

Continue reading

Interesting report from the Onalytica blog, measuring who the top 25 most influential business bloggers are, with full disclosure on their methodology for defining ‘influential.

Not sure I agree with their results, purely because they have a mix of blog networks (Corante), multi-author blogs (Businessblogconsulting) and famous single bloggers like Steve Rubel @ Micropersuasion.

Download the PDF of the report here.

The Results

Technorati Tags: blog research, blogosphere, business blogging, influence

Blogs to Riches – New York Magazine

Technorati adds authority weighting – Scoble
What is authority? – Rubel

State of the Blogosphere Part 2: Beyond Search – Sifry

How to Almost Live on Blogging – Wired

Corporate Brand Blog: Liberator or Oppressor? – Chief Marketer

Yes and no. Many blog entries just don’t elicit a response, even if it’s a popular or well-read blog. But sometimes a blog entry hits a nerve and it’s like uncorking a geyser.

That’s what’s happening today over on Steve Rubel’s Micro Persuasion blog where he’s announced that he’s moving to Edelman as a Senior VP. 42 comments and counting (“hey, congrats!” and “you da man!”) as of 2:48 PM Eastern. Hey, Steve, what’s the most comments you’ve ever gotten on one of your blog posts? We’d love to hear.

Micro Persuasion is #72 on Technorati’s Top 100 blog list.

Steve Rubel has made the big leap from CooperKatz to public relations giant Edelman:

“After five years at CooperKatz, I felt it was time for me to take the next step in my evolution. So I am excited to announce that I will be joining Rick Murray’s team at Edelman (the world’s largest independent PR firm) on February 27 as a Senior Vice President. I will be working out of their New York office.”

He humbly says he’ll be doing pretty much the same thing, just a bigger organization. One big question is, what happens to Micropersuasion? Apparently CooperKatz will rename their blog practice to Cogence and Edelman will not use the Micropersuasion name in any of their service offerings. Steve will be able to continue using the micropersuasion.com domain name. Further details can be found on the Micropersuasion blog.

Congratulations Steve!

Paul Gillin of “BtoB Magazine” is earnestly seeking non-tech company bloggers who are using weblogs for market research, specifically to collect research about customers and markets for an upcoming column. I know that there are companies whose blogs serve as market research – indeed, don’t just about all of these weblogs end up being customer research tools anyway, from which pages are most popular to the specific comments left?

Anyway, no pundits! He’s just looking for concrete, specific examples. Can you help him out? Please see:

    Are you using blogs for market research?

Surely a couple of you will step forward and help?

Google has launched a Google China Blog. Yes, it’s in Chinese so I can’t read it. But clearly it’s an attempt to answer critics of the company’s decision to cooperate with the Chinese government in censoring search results. Here’s the story in ChinaTechNews. And a less charitable spin on it here at P2Pnet.

Included are a few links in English in the right-hand column including John Battelle’s Searchblog. Kinda cool. That’s what you might call “getting exposure.” What’s the population of China? I forget… but probably growing exponentially along with the blogosphere.

Oh, and what’s my stance on the doing-business-with-a-repressive-government thing? It’s complicated. I lean towards the view that Google’s being available to Chinese Internet users – even in a limited way – is better than not being available at all to them as a resource. And your take on it is… ? Click that Comments link above!

UPDATE

But this reaction may be rather simple-minded of me. Read NYTimes write-up of yesterday’s House Subcommittee hearing on human rights with testimony from top execs at Cisco, Yahoo, Microsoft and Google. And another thoughtful account of the heated debate from BlogBusinessSummit.

And finally, details from Rebecca MacKinnon on the proposed Global Online Freedom Act of 2006.

This is one of those great “some companies really ‘get it'” stories, the kind of thing I love to hear about as someone riding the very tip of the technology rocketship (think Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove and you’ll have my mental image exactly). Prentice-Hall Business Publishers have the same challenges that any company today faces, including motivating the sales force, identifying the key message or messages for marketing and making sure that the team stays on message rather than wandering off into pointless information that isn’t going to close any sort of deal.

But unlike most companies, PH decided to tackle the problem with blogs, podcasts and simulation games. It’s darn interesting:

  Blogs, Podcasts and Simulations Improve Sales at Prentice-Hall

What have you done to help your sales team succeed today?

The obsessive compulsive blog stats person might be interested in a free service called MyBlogLog

MyBlogLog logs the clicking activity of your blog visitors and graphically displays which links are the most popular with your visitors by hovering over the link. This can fall under the heading of “stupid blog tricks,” but the service also allows you to post a sidebar widget that lists your most popular links.

This tool does add to the richness of your content.

Blogging events are appearing everywhere. As a result, more and more information is being exchanged about the power of business, marketing, public relations, and SEO blogs than ever before. The only problem is attending all of the functions. Not all bloggers have the necessary funds to share in the knowledge available.

Because of money shortages, many bloggers simply don’t go to any or all of the blogging conferences they might enjoy. Instead of mentioning their financial situations, the cash strapped blogger quietly avoids the issue, and stays at home. As a result, more people than the non-attending blogger are the losers.

The bloggers who elect to remain silent about their financial status miss an opportunity to learn more about the strength of blogging. Ideas that the stay at home bloggers possess about starting, building, and enhancing an online business are not shared with others. Everyone loses as some golden information sharing opportunites are lost.

Not only are ideas not shared with everyone, none are returned. After all, blogging concepts are more than a two way street. They are a multi-lane…yes…I know, I’ll say it…superhighway. Instead of free flowing traffic, there are only a few vehicles on the road. Many new entrants are left on the shoulders.

are lost chances to meet and network with peers. Other blog owners are your peers, and also potential business partners, customers, or vendors. Contacts lost by the few are boundless possibilities lost to the entire entire economy. We’re talking big picture stuff here.

Let’s not let any opportunites pass any bloggers left in the slow lane. Instead, share the wealth and sponsor a blogger to a blogging conference.

Find out which bloggers should be attending a blogging event, and offer to sponsor their trip in some way. Airline, train, or bus tickets are helpful for transportation to and from the event. Perhaps, you are driving to the conference. An extra blogging passenger, and incidently spare driver, could make for some pleasant company, and a much more enjoyable journey.

At the event city itself, offering a room or couch to a blogger eases the financial burden of paid accomodation. Sharing a home cooked meal with a hungry blogger can cement a friendship for life.

Businesses can get into the sponsorship act as well. In return for services such as transportation, food, and lodging, a blogger can offer some prominent advertising space on the blog. A mention in posts before, during, and after the event is powerful public relations for the company. If the business also has a business blog (as they should), their bloggers can mention the blogger sponsorship and the event as well.

How about a Sponsor A Blogger campaign, complete with clickable link buttons and a blog. The sponsor and the blogger would become an instant partnership, and share it with the world. Potential business relationships are even likely to follow.

As you can see, the possibilities are limited only by everyone’s imaginations.

Speak out if you want a sponsorship to an event. Potential sponsors should seek out bloggers who have something unique to offer.

Everyone wins in the end.

Interesting post from Heather Green at Business Week regarding advertising in RSS feeds. She interviews Feedburner’s Dick Costello who is discovering that contextual ads in RSS feeds don’t do as well as ads simply focused on the demographic of the reader.

This turns the typical ad model (blog about cameras gets ads about camera gear) on its ear a bit, but I think may make ads in RSS feeds a little more intersting.

It does make sense when you think about it. A blog viewer who comes to blog by way of search is, at the moment, focused on finding very specific information, including ads that relate to that information.

An RSS reader or subscriber may read the feed out of habit and be more open to reading and responding to an ad that hits other subjects.

The Economist published an article this week on the threats and opportunities of blogs and bloggers, “Corporate reputations – The blog in the corporate machine“.

The Threat:

“The spread of “social mediaâ€? across the internet—such as online discussion groups, e-mailing lists and blogs—has brought forth a new breed of brand assassin, who can materialise from nowhere and savage a firm’s reputation.”

The Opportunity:

“Many big companies have been looking eagerly for ways to tailor their advertising to specific groups of consumers. They have found that web logs and internet discussion groups, which bring together people of similar interests, can help them turn hot links into cold cash. But besides trying to get out their message, companies are also learning that blogs can provide early warning signs of potential problems.”

Steve Rubel was also quoted in the article giving tips on how to use a blog for crisis communications, suggesting the creation of a “lockbox blog”.

Despite the attempt at describing pros and cons of consumer generated media and blogs in particular, the article doesn’t do justice to the many positive marketing, PR and branding benefits. Reputation management is not the only reason companies should pay attention to the blogosphere. Regardless, the article does draw more attention to blogging with an influential audience and that’s a good thing.

A new service set to launch next week called 3Bubbles allows bloggers to add a chat function to each post as a way to extend the conversation with readers. This looks like an interesting way to really make blogs conversations.

This is the newest wrinkle in corporate blogging. It’s brilliant and it’s simple. Coke has found six smart university students (from China, the U.S., Austria, Germany, Canada and Italy) to blog the Torino Winter Olympic Games for them. Torino Conversations features the photos – and corresponding country flags – of the students along with snippets of their most recent entries. Click the one for Du Wei from China and you’ll see her latest entry. It includes a link to a podcast. She writes:

“Finally, we are getting started. Katie and I spent 2 hours walking around within the sponsor village and into the streets of Torino, grasping people to talk to and pose for photos. It was also good to have opportunity to walk around and look at Torino from a non-Olympic angle.

The Chairman of Coca-Cola, Neville Isdell came to award the first Coca-Cola Live Olympic Award to the very first employee of TOROC, Giovanna Locci, and we got a chance to talk to the chairman before the ceremony. Check it out here [link to podcast] and we will come up with more interviews with PIN TRADERS and perhaps the Opening Ceremony tomorrow.”

According to MarketingVox the students have agreed to keep their blog entries positive and upbeat. Travel and accommodations are being paid for by Coke. How cool is that…

I’d be interested in knowing more about how Coca-Cola identified the students and vetted their blogging skills and common sense quotient. (Gotta be some good parties in Torino… )

Oh and just noticed this. Scroll down on Torino Conversations and you’ll see photos they’ve uploaded along with comments from (no doubt envious) friends. This fits right in with Pew Internet’s recent survey that said 57% of teens create content for the Web. It’s as natural as talking on a cell phone for them.

Useful Link

Light the Torch is another twist on Olympics blogging. It was just launched by blogging network b5media and is inviting guest contributors. All proceeds from Google AdSense revenues on the blog will go to athletic organizations supporting athletes (not sure what those are exactly, but sounds good).

Revlon now has a new line of products that middle-aged and older women – you know, the ones with all the money – will embrace. If the buzz continues and if Revlon can amplify the word of mouth, they are going to have a great success.

Months ago, Crabby Old Lady wrote in Glitter and Gloss

“…Max, Estee, Christian, Elizabeth, Helena, Germaine, Pierre and all the rest who served her so well in her youth have forsaken Crabby in her dotage. Where is the foundation that covers nature’s errors but doesn’t cake in the lines? Eye shadow in matte colors of brown and gray without sparklies? Blusher and lip gloss that are brighter than Crabby’s skin color, but not by much, and certainly not iridescent?

In the Radiant Elder Women , Crabby Old Lady raves about Vital Radiance in words that will make Revlon executives whoop and holler.

For the past week, Crabby Old Lady has been playing with this new line of cosmetics with as much enthusiasm as when she was a teenager experimenting with makeup for the first time. It’s the best girlie fun she’s had in ages.

What did they do right?

They listened. They made apparently great products that meet real needs. They didn’t patronize with false promises. They marketed well.

And because of Crabby’s endorsement and because I trust her, I’m going to buy me some. I probably would have ignored the magazine ads.

I’m thinking this is just the beginning of whole new ways of marketing to that sweetest of sweet spots, the middle-aged women. Could it be that the Beauty Market has grown up? This is just Lipsticking good and smart marketing to women online when women who use and love the products are talking themselves and to each other.

It’s customers evangelizing what they see as awesome new product.

If Revlon takes the advice of Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba at Church of the Customer they will be tracking blogs so they can take the best advantage of such word of mouth.

If they are really smart, they will set up a blog to talk about their new line of Vital Radiance. Why not talk more about the research for their product? Why not capture what women customers are saying about their product? Why not extend and amplify that word of mouth? Why not create an online community of women who want to look better without a lot of gloss and glitter? Why not have a place where women can exchange tips and have fun with the girls?

That’s what blogs in the beauty biz should do.